Party candidate Jasper Gerard claims that allegations of sexual misconduct against Chris Rennard have been "blown out of all proportion".

Former Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell with former party chief executive Chris Rennard at the Liberal Democrat conference in 2006. Photograph: Getty Images.

After the events of recent days, one might assume that all Lib Dems would go out of their way to show contrition, but not party candidate and former Observer journalist Jasper Gerard.

Appearing on The World At One, Gerard, the author of a biography of Nick Clegg, said of the allegations of sexual misconduct by Chris Rennard:

"We are still now going on about whether somebody put his hand or didn't put his hand on somebody's knee. This isn't a Jimmy Savile case revisited."

It's the kind of comment that exemplifies precisely why allegations of this kind aren't taken seriously to begin with.

And there was more. Gerard, who was recently selected as the Lib Dem PPC for Maidstone and The Weald, suggested that the "unfortunate" claims had been "blown out of all proportion", describing them as "pretty historical".

"You've got to bear in mind that [Rennard] hasn't even been chief executive of the party for four years. Are we going to start dredging up things that Lloyd George did? This is pretty historical."

In response to his comments, Alison Smith, one of Rennard's alleged victims, tweeted, "Hoping that Jasper Gerrard will be deselected for those comments #Rennard".